Attitude contagion in consumer opinion platforms: posters and lurkers

International audienc

Taking Advantage of Algorithmic Preference to Reduce Product Returns in E-Commerce

Reimbursement of repair costs is a way to motivate customers to keep defective products instead of returning them. However, there is no research-based guidance on how retailers should frame repair costs reimbursement offers in terms of who decides on the size of the reimbursement and makes the offer—an employee or a machine. To guide further IS research and suggest ways that help e-commerce businesses to improve repair costs reimbursement effectiveness to decrease product return rates, the present research draws on literature on offer sources and on insights from a qualitative and an experimental study. We find that artificial intelligence-based (vs. human-based) repair costs reimbursement offers promote fairness perceptions, which, in turn, affect important customer outcomes—the likelihood to accept the offer and digital negative word of mouth. The results can guide e-commerce businesses’ returns-prevention efforts and IS research

Investment in Business Software and Perceived Utility: An Empirical Study

Authors have identified many different reasons why companies invest into IT and there has been much discussion of how IT can generate value. This paper adds to the discussion of IT value generation by investigating investments in business software for the support of business processes in Swiss SMEs. In an empirical survey on the future IT investment for process support, 917 questionnaires were collected and analysed. In a first step, using exploratory factor analysis, two factors representing different sets of business software modules were identified: (1) basic modules and (2) specialized modules. In a second step, using cluster analysis, we identified four typical characteristic company profiles regarding investments in business software: (1) the IT convinced, (2) the IT differentiators, (3) the IT sceptics, and (4) the IT pragmatists. To further explore and profile the clusters, we ran several bivariate analyses with selected questions from the questionnaire. This study has both theoretical and managerial relevance as it helps to understand firm attitudes towards investments and business software

Nudging Towards Sustainable Delivery Options: First Insights From an Experimental Study

As the e-commerce sector continues to grow, customers are increasingly concerned about the impact of their online orders on working conditions and the environment. In many cases though, online retailers emphasize delivery speed over sustainability and offer delivery options that put a strain on logistics workers and the environment. To promote the choice of more sustainable but slower delivery options, we present a model concerning how message frames affect delivery choice and customer outcomes (order completion, loyalty, word of mouth). An experimental study shows that simple message frames, regarding job conditions, the environment, and customer convenience, increase the choice of more sustainable, slower delivery options and customer outcomes indirectly via delivery choice, and warm glow feelings. Delivery fees dilute the impact of environmental message frames on delivery choice though. Overall, our findings suggest that nudging customers towards sustainable delivery options is possible, yielding positive effects for customers and retailers

FEARING ONLINE IDENTITY THEFT: A SEGMENTATION STUDY OF ONLINE CUSTOMERS

The growth of online transactions coincides with the rise of cyber-criminals’ intent on stealing con-sumers’ personal and financial data. This fosters fear of online identity theft (FOIT), which in turn may lead to changes in consumer behavior and negatively affect e-business performance. This re-search aims to identify empirically derived segments of FOIT-prone consumers. Using a large sample of online shoppers, four distinct clusters are identified—‘less fearful shoppers’, ‘strong fear but ignor-ing shoppers’, ‘fearless shoppers’, and ‘fearful shoppers’. The clusters differ significantly with respect to primary cluster variables as well as numerous secondary cluster variables. The relevance of FOIT for segmenting online consumers and theoretical implications for IS research are discussed

IDEA CONTESTS IN THE ERA OF AI: IS THE CROWD STILL USEFUL IN THE CASE OF SUSTAINABLE FOOD PACKAGING?

Companies often rely on crowds to complement their own R&D activities, for example, through idea contests. However, the ongoing digital disruption initiated by artificial intelligence applications may blunt the effectiveness of such crowd-based idea generation. Asked pointedly: When artificial intelligence can deliver product ideas that are valued by customers, is the crowd still needed? This study investigates the impact of innovation sources in new product development – crowd-sourced versus R&D departments – and the use of artificial intelligence on consumer acceptance in the context of sustainable food packaging. A scenario-based experiment involving 340 participants reveals that crowd-sourced solutions suffer from a competence trust deficit, which can be mitigated by using artificial intelligence in the design process. Our research is a first step to advance the understanding of how innovation sources and artificial intelligence affect consumer responses and provides insights for the future of the crowd

Sustainable consumption and third-party certified labels: consumers' perceptions and reactions

Compared with conventional products, sustainable products continue to attract relatively lower market shares. To increase customer acceptance, many sustainable products feature third-party certified labels (TPCL), yet it is unclear whether TPCL are effective and what processes and boundary conditions define their role in consumer decision making. Across three experimental studies, this research determines that sustainable products are characterized by credence qualities, associated with increased perceptions of risk, which negatively influence consumers’ purchase intentions. Drawing on signaling theory, this study also shows that TPCL on sustainable products provide brand-like information cues that reduce the perceived risk of sustainable products. Finally, a third experimental study demonstrates that consumers must perceive TPCL as credible for them to reduce consumers’ risk perceptions

Is AI the Future of Weight Loss Coaching? Exploring Digital Methods for Automated Health Guidance

Obesity is an epidemic that demands innovative solutions. Digital platforms-based weight loss coaching can combat obesity and reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes. Our study assesses the effectiveness of an online weight loss coaching platform (OWLCP), which provides personalised advice through coach-participant interactions. With 72 participants, the study demonstrates the platform’s potential for increased weight loss. To enhance coach productivity, scale up and increase cost-efficiency, the OWLCP considers automated health coaching using artificial intelligence (AI). We investigate three optimisation methods capable of generating tailored meal plans, which are crucial for weight management, to further enhance human health coaches’ capacity to provide feedback. We also predict that OWLCP will evolve further through the integration of large language models-based machine learning-generated meal plans, thus refining and enhancing the efficiency of the coaching process

Background Design in Telehealth: Shaping Patient Perceptions of the Service

Telehealth holds the potential to reduce rising healthcare costs and improve access to healthcare. However, telehealth services’ uptake is contingent on the successful design of the service. While previous research mainly focuses on the technical design of telehealth services, we investigate the effects of service providers’ digital environment during a video consultation by analyzing how the level of professionalism of the physician’s video background affects patient outcomes and whether customization of the video background moderates this relationship. Building on fluency theory and experimental data (n = 270), we reveal that the less professional the background is, the more negative the impact on patients’ service evaluation through perceived physician competence and trust towards the physician: However, we do not find a moderating effect of video background customization on the relation between level of professionalism and perceived physician competence. Our results suggest important theoretical and managerial implications and ideas for future research

Service productivity:what stops service firms from measuring it?

Productivity measurement poses a challenge for service organizations. Conventional management wisdom holds that this challenge is rooted in the difficulty of accurately quantifying service inputs and outputs. Few service firms have adequate service productivity measurement (SPM) systems in place and implementing such systems may involve organizational transformation. Combining field interviews and literature-based insights, the authors develop a conceptual model of antecedents of SPM in service firms and test it using data from 276 service firms. Results indicate that one out of five antecedents affects the choice to use SPM, namely, the degree of service standardization. In addition, all five hypothesized antecedents and one additional antecedent (perceived appropriateness of the current SPM) predict the degree of SPM usage. In particular, the degree of SPM is positively influenced by the degree of service standardization, service customization, investments in service productivity gains, and the appropriateness of current service productivity measures. In turn, customer integration and the perceived difficulty of measuring service productivity negatively affect SPM. The fact that customer integration impedes actual measurement of service productivity is a surprising finding, given that customer integration is widely seen as a means to increase service productivity. The authors conclude with implications for service organizations and directions for research